Ventura musta read Emanuel Todd's book

[Gerry Storm]

Children born out of wedlock in this country are a rising statistic since we
hippies introduced the living together out of wedlock dynamic to the middle
class. Women's Lib is also a major contributor. Black people have always had
lots of out of wedlock births, Mexicans very few.

Americans are the most brainwashed country, changing traditions at the drop
of a hat under the influence of corporate advertising, always trying to be
cool instead of thinking.

At the last Olympics we still prevailed in the total medal count (of course,
we had one of the largest squads as well). But as other countries have more
leisure time to devote to sport they are rapidly closing the gap, we are not
a master race--nor even a single race for that matter so it is difficult to
compare on that basis.

One of our largest exports is entertainment (to which we are the most
addicted country--not cool and not smart IMHO). But beneath the facade we
grow more unhealthy each year with a highly contaiminated society that is
utterly dependent upon chemicals: chemicals in the food, chemicals in the
air, chemicals in the water, more chemicals in our bodies than any other
people. Until this is recognized and dealt with we will continue to drop
like flies under the haze of "better living through chemistry" propaganda
that rules our sick society.

I never liked Michael Ventura as a writer or as a person.
G


----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Edwards" <laughingwolf at ev1.net>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Cc: "ghetto 2" <ghetto2 at lists.whathelps.com>
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 10:01 AM
Subject: Re: Ventura musta read Emanuel Todd's book


I know nothing of Emanuel Todd and, as I previously wrote, am no fan of
Ventura. But I strongly question your contention that the statistics
are either "bogus" or "contentious." You offer no proof for this
contention. Attacking Todd's thinking accomplishes little. This column
is about the average American's muddle-headed thinking that we're "No.
1" in everything. As you will notice if you reread each statistic, each
one is specifically (parenthetically) documented (no reference to E.
Todd). There are a small few with vague basis in fact, but the majority
of the statistics are solid.

Oddly enough, I agree with you that they "don't add up to the reality
of life in the US." This is true because this "reality" is the
aforementioned No. 1 dominant paradigm in America. Don't confuse us
with facts.

Who cares if Michael Ventura has read Emanuel Todd? Quite obviously,
the column wasn't derived from a book. None of us is "forced to read"
Ventura's writing which is why I nearly missed this one and also why I
sent it out to my Ghetto sisters and brothers with some overlapping in
this case. These facts ought to startle all of us. If you want to write
about the statistics, please do, but enough with the obfuscation and
bullshit.

twisty dodds




On Jan 21, 2005, at 8:04 AM, Michael Eisenstadt wrote:

> Emanuel Todd is an intellectually dishonest French
>  sociologist whose recent book The End of Empire is
>  available in English.
>
> Some of Ventura's/Todd's statistics are bogus, the rest
> are tendentious. They don't add up to the reality
> of life in the US.
>
> The basic argument is that America, compared to Europe,
> is parasitical in the sense that Americans dont
>  really work or have jobs. Todd "proves" this by
>  reference to our international trade deficit. This
>  is a bogus conclusion. Todd like so many other
> talking/writing heads is an ignoramus about
> economics and outsourcing. Paul Krugman whose
>  politics we all agree with has written several books
>  explaining international trading monetary theory. The
>  theory itself is counter-intuitive and not easy to grasp.
> A country's trade deficit does not make their citizens
> parasites on the rest of the world.
>
> As for the rich exploiting their workers and the latter's
> immiseration, that is a fact of life everywhere and is
>  not confined to only rich Americans doing it.
>
> Ventura's retread of Todd's book belongs where
> we actually find it: in the Austin Chronicle. He
> writes his articles at 3am in the morning  or so he
>  says. That is an amusing conceit which excuses
>  much. Unfortunately most of us are forced to read
>  him during the day
>
>
>